Over the weekend, I gave the solitaire version of the game a try, electing to go up against the Merville Battery map.

As I started toward the artillery bunker, I was somewhat concerned about the steep defense of the sectors toward the end, and even more concerned about the necessity for a Battle Cry RWB to enter the bunker (in the solitaire game, the amphetamines, which would make it easy, are replaced with a signaling lamp).

But as I looked over the field and the items and specialists available to me, an idea began to formulate in my head. Advancing up the right edge, on the way I obtained the grenadier and the Bangalore torpedo. When I reached Sector 11, the potentially devastating MGF was silenced by my grenadier's heroic sacrifice.

And then, upon entering Sector 13, I nullified the defense value with the Bangalore torpedo. The now impotent sector, combined with the fact that units could stay there indefinitely, meant that I could sit and collect an infinite number of troops before crossing over into the bunker.

This seems like a cheap strategy, not in keeping with the desperate nature of the game. "Men, let's just sit tight here on the side of the bunker. They can't do anything to us, so we'll just keep rallying more troops." I almost want to say the Bangalore should not be available for this map (nor any map with an infinite-stay sector), simply because of this exploit. It could be that the mileage may vary on the multiplayer version, but so long as everyone stays together, it plays out the same way.

Huh. I had a creeping feeling I was doing something wrong. What threw me off was the wording on the "Grenade" item explicitly saying "for 1 turn". I'll definitely be giving this another go with the proper use of defense-reducing items.

The wording on the cards sometimes can be a bit confusing too. I had to ask my friend to look it up in the rules before I used the torpedo. The card makes it seems like it would be reduced indefinitely, and if you don't research the rules for every nuance it could be easy to miss.